Arts Awareness Blog

The artistic process requires flexibility—the willingness to let go of something and to take a new direction. Artists are well poised, through their ability to stay open, responsive, and resilient, to adapt to complex challenges in their own world as well as in the world at large.

Artists spend hours in openness. They free their minds from being in complete control. While it can feel risky, openness gives them a chance to experience change and break down the barriers that can build up from everyday living.

Creating and performing great art requires that you consider all possibilities—be open to all outcomes. Openness to all outcomes involves an internal process that allows the artist to weigh options, visualize, rethink things, combine things in new ways, consider the bigger picture, and playfully formulate a plan or design.

Artists perpetually change the way we all look at things. They use their imaginations to transform our knowledge and understanding of the world. Once we experience expanded limits of our personal knowledge, whether we agree or challenge the learning, life from that point on will never be the same.

Everything was beautiful. The performance was exhilarating. At the final chord, the conductor motioned for everyone to end what was to be a resounding and reverberating conclusion to the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah, but wait—something was wrong.

A couple of months ago, I was sitting in the audience enjoying an outstanding performance of the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. The actors were singing and dancing when suddenly one of the women lost her skirt—it fell off completely!

Everyone wants freedom—freedom to create their lives, to do their work, and to build their relationships. Artists have an unusually keen sense of what it takes to express themselves without restrictions through their art form.

Color plays an important role in our everyday experiences. It’s a language that can attract your attention or change your mood. For artists, it serves as an important communication link between their art and the observer or listener.

There are thousands of artists, day after day, who are getting out of bed running full speed ahead, knowing in their hearts that they can prevail over circumstances that come their way. They commit and they accept responsibility for what they accomplish.

In the summer, the arts pop up everywhere—you’ll find budget-friendly arts festivals in nearly every community in the United States and throughout the world. They often reflect the arts and cultural scene in the cities, states, and countries where they are located, mixing local talent with acclaimed artists.

There is no doubt about it—when you go to a Pops Concert, it’s time to have fun! I recently attended a Boston Pops concert sitting at a table near the front of Symphony Hall for the early-ꞌ60s-themed program that was inspired by the television hit, Mad Men.

What is going on back there? I was in middle of playing an important solo passage when I noticed movement and whispers coming from behind and below—we were on risers a couple of feet off the main floor of the stage.

Yesterday I visited a new outdoor sculpture gallery on the Christian Science Plaza in Boston’s Back Bay and was just blown away by the experience. The Plaza, which attracts thousands of visitors each year from all over the world, is a 14-acre pedestrian refuge amid the busy traffic patterns of Boston’s urban environment.